Jessica didn’t even know what to say. She stared out in the darkness around the house and then back down at the intruder. “I guess he’s not saying anything, is he?” she whispered. She didn’t even know why the hell she was whispering, but it just seemed like anything above a whisper would disturb the peace. And that made no sense. She gave a half maniacal shout of laughter. “Dear God,” she said, “here I’m worried about being quiet, when I need to have the cops come and haul this asshole away.”
“You go do that,” Greyson said quietly.
As she watched, he pulled out the guy’s wallet.
She frowned. “What are you doing?”
“Once the cops get here, they won’t tell us anything,” he said. “I want to know who this guy is.” He flipped the wallet open to the driver’s license, pulled it out, as well as several credit cards, and took photos.
“Why the credit cards?” She hated that tone of suspicion in her voice, but she couldn’t for the life of her figure out why he needed photos of them.
“Because look. They’re all in different names,” he said quietly.
At that, she gasped and bent closer. Sure enough they were. “Did he steal them?”
“Possibly,” he said, “or he’s using fake IDs.” He flipped through the wallet and found some cash, as in several hundred dollars, which was way more money than she’d seen in a long time. Making sure nothing was of interest, he shoved the wallet back in the guy’s pocket, then Greyson proceeded to check the rest of him over. In a front pocket, he found the guy’s cell phone.
With that, she watched an almost feral smile come across his face. She crouched beside him. “You’ll need a passcode.”
He nodded. “It would be needed in most cases.” But he double tapped the screen, and, sure enough, up came the icons.
She gasped again. “Seriously?”
He nodded, looked at her, and said, “Did you call the cops?”
She hesitated, not wanting to leave him alone with the phone and miss something. “I’ll call in a minute,” she said.
He chuckled. “You make a great sidekick.”
“Not exactly what I was going for in life,” she said drily.
He nodded and smiled. “You could do much better.”
“I don’t know about that,” she said. “So far you and the dog have teamed up to save my son’s life and mine. And speaking of which”—she spied the dog as she laid on the grass beside them—“I never got the rope.” She quickly went to the garage and picked up a bundle she remembered being there, although it was more of a braided cord. While here, she placed a quick call to 9-1-1, then returned to the scenario outside. “This is all I have,” she said quietly and set the rope next to him.
He looked up from taking photographs of the guy’s phone screen. Then he connected the two phones with a cord.
She frowned and asked, “What are you doing?”
“Transferring contact information,” he said, just above a whisper, as he reached out for the braided cord and quickly created a loop at one end. Walking over to the dog, he sat down, and, with the loop up over his shoulder, he reached out and gently scratched the dog on the back of the neck. In a smooth move that she’d never seen before, he lowered the loop down his arm and very quickly around the dog’s neck. With Kona now on a rough leash, she seemed to understand and behaved more like a War Dog, Jessica presumed.
When Greyson stood and commanded the dog to come, the dog walked toward them. When he told her to heel, she went around his back and sat on his right side. Greyson reached down and gave several rewarding scratches and reinforcement to Kona.
Jessica shook her head. “I’m really glad you got her,” she said. In the distance she heard sirens, and she groaned. “Oh, yeah. I forgot to tell you. I also called the cops.”
He nodded. Walking back to where the phones were, he gave a small sound of satisfaction and quickly disconnected them, putting the guy’s phone back in his pocket, then sat down on the veranda step beside the stalker as Greyson sent those contacts to Badger to cull through.
Once her attacker came to, lying between Greyson and Kona, he knew he was caught. When he heard the sirens, he panicked. “I’ll give you money to let me go,” he hissed, then he stayed silent.
“I’m sure you would,” she snapped, “but you’ve been stalking me and my son, making our lives miserable for a long time now.”
He shrugged. “The money was good.”
“Yeah? Who’s paying you? That’s what I want to know,” she said.
He gave her a half a smile. And, from the position he was in, facedown on the wooden veranda, it was a pretty strong caricature of a real smile.
When the cops pulled up out front, she headed to the front door. Before long, two policemen were out on the rear veranda with them. They looked at the scenario. One pushed his hat back and said, “Well, well, well. We’ve had rumors of somebody skulking around this area.”
“Well, now the rumors are a whole lot more than that,” Greyson said. “We caught him trying to attack Jessica on her veranda here, while holding her son.” Greyson motioned to Kona, who sat at his feet. “Kona here stopped him.”
“We have to get statements from you two,” he said, “but first I’ll get this guy into the car.” He helped him to his feet, then led him around the side of the house.
The second cop brought out his notepad and started asking questions as he jotted down notes.
There wasn’t a whole lot they could say, and she noticed that Greyson kept his words very simple. He didn’t say anything about the dog being here on its own, so she followed his lead, saying that she had felt like she was being watched several times. She had talked to her mother and her sister about it but hadn’t called the police because she didn’t know what to tell them.
“Well, this is the best-case scenario,” the cop said. “You’ve caught your stalker. So we’ll take him down to the station and charge him. I will need you to come in and sign statements tomorrow though.”
“Not a problem,” she said. “I can come in the morning, if that’s okay.”
“That sounds good,” he said, and he headed around the house to the front yard.
She turned to look at Greyson, relief washing through her. “That went better than I expected.”
“Sometimes,” he said with a gentle smile, “when you keep your words to a minimum, things go smoother.” He frowned, then cocked his head to the side.
“Now what?” She couldn’t hear anything. She watched as Greyson and Kona walked to the side of the house, listening intently. Finally he looked at her and said, “They haven’t driven away,” he said. He and the dog walked farther. Greyson added, “I’ll go out front.”
Jessica went inside, closed the glass doors, and locked them. Then darted to look out the front window. Sure enough, the cop car was still sitting in her front yard. As she stepped out the front door, Greyson and Kona came around the side, and she watched Kona’s coat immediately bristle, as a growl came from the back of her throat. Jessica came around the front porch to see one cop lying unconscious on the driveway and, on the other side, where Greyson was, lay the other cop. But the guy from her backyard was nowhere to be found.
She stared at Greyson in horror, as he knelt beside the first, then the second cop, checking both men’s condition.
Grim faced, he pulled out his phone and made calls. Kona wouldn’t calm down at all. The ridge on the back of her neck was up, and she paced back and forth, as far as the rope would let her.
“It’s almost like she knows where he’s gone,” she said.
“She could very well be a tracking dog,” he said. “I haven’t looked into her skills that much, but I won’t leave you alone with two unconscious cops and a stalker on the loose.”
“I think he’s well past a stalker now,” she said. “He’s assaulted and knocked out two cops and escaped. That should get him a much higher priority on the attention list.”
“Hopefully,” he said, nodding. “But we have to wait here for the next round of cops to come and the ambulance.”
She winced at that. “Meanwhile he’s getting away,” she said bitterly. “Which means he can come back to the house at any time.”
He hesitated but nodded. “Let’s hope the cops decide to post a guard for you.”
“It’s a small department,” she said, “and I know that they’re running into budget trouble. They’ve requested two more officers, but I don’t think they got them.”
He winced at that. “Right. So it looks like Kona and I will be on guard duty then.”
She stared at him in shock. “You’d do that?”
“Well, this guy will come back, just like you said, and that’s not something I can leave you to deal with in good conscience. Better if I could start tracking him now though.”
Just then they heard sirens. This time two cop cars came with the ambulance. Everybody immediately raced toward them, and, within minutes, both unconscious cops were examined, loaded up, and taken away in the ambulance.
Two very angry cops glared at the two of them. Greyson reached out, grabbed her hand, and tugged her closer, then whispered, “Let me explain.” He proceeded to give the police a very clear, albeit slightly skinny version of what had happened. When he said the second man headed out to the front to the driveway, and they didn’t hear the sound of the vehicle, he went out to check and found both cops like this. She nodded in agreement.
“So, you have no idea which direction the assailant went?”
She shook her head. “No, we don’t. The dog was pretty upset, but I don’t know that she was prepared to say which direction the guy went or not.”
He looked down at the dog and said, “Has it got any skill with tracking?”
“I’m more than willing to try it out,” Greyson said. “But I have no idea.”
“Forget it,” said one of the other cops. “We need to track him on foot, and I’ve already called in a K9 unit.”
“Good.”
The other men dispersed to canvass the neighborhood.
She frowned, looked at Greyson. “They left the cop car here too.”
“Forensics will likely come,” he said. He looked around and nodded. “It’s blocking your car from getting out, isn’t it?”
“Yeah, the one day I pull into the garage …” she said with a sad smile.
“Not a problem,” he said. He looked back at the house and said, “Go check on Danny, would you?”
She bolted into the front door. She had checked on him earlier, but, knowing that the damn stalker was loose again, she couldn’t let her guard down now for sure. She cried out in relief when she saw Danny, still in his bed. She walked over and sat down, reached out to touch him with her shaking hand. “Dear God,” she whispered, “this nightmare needs to end.”
Hearing footsteps on the stairs, she twisted around and saw Greyson standing in the doorway, his hand to his chest and his eyes closed.
“Thank God,” he whispered. “You worried me when you didn’t come back.”
She realized then that he thought something had happened to her son—or to the both of them. It had all been too much. She couldn’t help herself as she got to her feet and bolted toward him. He opened his arms, and she flung herself into them, never more grateful when they closed around her, keeping her safe.
“It’s been a hell of a night,” Greyson said, as he held her close.
“I’m sorry,” Jessica said. “I don’t know what’s come over me.”
She tried to step away, but he held her gently and tucked her back in. “Just relax,” he said. “You’ve had successive shocks,” he said, “and, if you don’t need a moment, I do.”
She giggled with laughter at that, and he grinned. He looked down at the dog, who had been sitting in the corner. Then Kona sniffed around, got up, and wandered toward the bed. Greyson looked over at Jessica and asked, “Is it okay if Kona checks on the boy?”
“If you think it’s safe.”
“I suspect it’s your boy who brought Kona into your life and kept her here,” he said. He let the dog come closer. The dog gave several long sniffs up and down the sleeping boy, but, apparently satisfied that Danny was fine, she sat down, turned, looked at Greyson, and then slowly laid down.
“Oh my,” she said. “What does she want?”
“To stand guard, from what I can see,” he said. “But, as much as that might be a good idea, I’m not quite prepared to do that yet.”
She nodded. “I’m not sure that’s a good idea yet either.”
He nudged the rope and called the dog toward him. Kona hopped up and walked over willingly. They closed the door partially and went back downstairs to the kitchen.
“The cop car is still there,” she said.
He nodded. “As soon as they leave, I’ll go out and hunt for your stalker.”
“Won’t it be too late by then?”
He shrugged. “Obviously the earlier, the better. But I don’t want to draw any attention from the cops or be tagged for interfering in their hunt.”
She winced at that. “They should be happy to get any assistance,” she said.
“They might be, but I’m an unknown factor. And remember. Somebody attacked two cops, and we were the only ones here,” he reminded her. “They’ll look at us sideways for quite a while.”
“I didn’t do anything,” she said. He watched as she walked over to the teakettle and quickly filled it and put it on. She turned and looked at him. “I could make coffee if you prefer.”
“Tea is fine,” he said. “It’s almost five o’clock in the morning. Good thing I let my Grandparents know I was not going to be going back home last night.”
She stared at him in shock, checking the clock on the stove. “Oh, boy. It’ll be a rough day with Danny having lots of sleep and me having none,” she said in a wry tone.
He nodded. “Toddlers are a handful in the best of times,” he said with a laugh. “But, when you don’t have any sleep, I imagine it’s much worse.”
“Do you have any children?” she asked in an open, frank way that he liked.
“Nope,” he said. “Never been married, never had a family, but have tons of friends with toddlers.”
“Well, the next line should be, what exactly is wrong with you then?” she teased.
“Meaning all the good guys are married?” he said, enjoying the banter.
“That’s one of the lines,” she said. “Most guys I meet these days are divorced.”
“That’s because divorce is so prevalent in our society now.” He walked over with the dog and said, “Do you have a bowl I could put some water in?”
She gasped. “Oh, my gosh, I should have thought of that.” She quickly pulled a mixing bowl from her cupboard with a decent-size flat bottom, then filled it with water and put it on the floor off to the side.
Kona had several slow drinks and then glanced around at him.
“I think she’s looking for food,” Jessica noted.
“Sorry, Kona. I doubt any dog food is here.”
“There’s not,” she said. “I have some ham and cheese though.”
“Not exactly the food we want to get her accustomed to having,” he said with a smile, “but I’m sure Kona deserves it after the morning she had.”
“That she does.” As Jessica spoke, she was already hauling out a chunk of a home-cooked ham.
He looked at it, and his mouth watered. “Did you bake that yourself?”
She nodded. “I like to cook. A ham like this gives me lots of leftovers,” she confessed. “It gives me a great finger food for Danny, and it’s economical to buy when on sale too.”
“I’m sure Kona wouldn’t object to those nice fatty chunks there.”
“If you want to work cleaning bits off the bone, I’ll cut her up some cheese.”
He got up, walked over, and dropped the leash, so Kona was free to wander, giving her just enough rope to see what she’d do. He picked up the small paring knife and cleaned the bone up as much as he could. “Are you making soup out of this?”
“We’ve had it rather often lately,” she said, “so I’ll probably just freeze it for now and make a soup later.”
“That works too,” he said cheerfully. He bagged it up for her and cut up the rest of the ham, separating the better slices for her and Danny from some of the fatty tidbits for the dog.
Kona had taken up residence at his feet and stared up at him, watching every hand movement as he wielded the small knife.
When Jessica had a few pieces of cheese cut into small bits, Greyson mixed the ham and cheese together and put them in a small bowl, placing it down for Kona. She looked at him.
He smiled and said, “Okay, go ahead and eat.” She immediately lowered her head and worked away on the cheese and ham.
“She has excellent manners,” Jessica said in surprise.
“All the War Dogs are very well trained,” he said.
“What a different world this must seem like for her,” she said sadly. “You would think that a dog coming back from military service in a war-torn country should be able to rest, not sit here and try to save a mother and her son from a stalker.”
“And yet it’s a good thing she did,” he said. “I’m still not so sure the stalker has gone very far.”
“That’s very disconcerting,” she said.
Just then a knock came at the door. Kona growled, lifting her head from the empty bowl. Greyson picked up her leash and walked to the front door. It was one of the cops.
“We need to come in and ask some more questions,” he said.
“Come on in then,” he said. “We’re just having a cup of tea.” As he walked past, he picked up Kona’s empty bowl, put it in the sink, and filled it with water.
Jessica had been busy cleaning up the kitchen, and she turned to the cop. “Did you find him?” she asked.
“Not yet,” he said. “We’re still trying to get a K9 unit.”
“As I said, I’m willing to try,” Greyson said. “This is Kona, a War Dog. She’s highly trained.”
At the mention of War Dog, the cop looked down at Kona in surprise. “Interesting,” he said. “I don’t know much about the program.”
“Well, dogs have different specialties,” Greyson said, “but they all have extremely thorough training and excellent obedience. She certainly thought she had a bead on the attacker’s scent earlier.”
He hesitated and then said, “It can’t hurt.”
“No, it can’t,” Greyson said. He walked out onto the rear veranda and said, “I need her to get his scent again.” When he spotted the balaclava he’d ripped off the guy’s head, he picked it up and shoved it under Kona’s nose and said, “Let’s go find him.”
Kona immediately started barking. She wanted to go back through the house and out the front. Greyson looked over at the cop and said, “I’ll go hunt,” he said, “but Jessica and her son need to be protected in case that asshole comes around through the back again.” The cop nodded and said, “I’ll be here, and I’m telling my partners that you’re headed out.”
“Good. Wish us luck.” And, with that, he headed out the front door and down the street. It was all he could do to keep up with Kona as she pulled on the rope. He’d left it as a simple slipknot around her neck, which would choke her if she kept pulling, so he tried to stay up with her. But she was on a mission, and she wasn’t about to let it go anytime soon.